A 25-year-old man was convicted in the killing of an 18-year-old in Plainfield, gunned down after getting caught in a dispute between rival gangs, the Union County Prosecutor's Office announced Monday.

Donald Johnson of Plainfield was convicted Friday of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, conspiracy to commit murder and other offenses in the March 14, 2006, shooting death of Robert Codys.

Codys, also of Plainfield, was not a gang member, authorities said.

The day of the shooting, Johnson -- a member of the Clinton Avenue Posse -- and two accomplices, had left a memorial service for a fellow gang member killed three years earlier, the prosecutor's office said. As the three drove through Plainfield, they decided to attack members of the rival Lib Side Boys gang, said Assistant Prosecutor James Donnelly, who handled the case heard in Superior Court in Elizabeth.

Driving into the rival gang's territory, Johnson used a .25-caliber automatic handgun to shoot out the windows of a car belonging to the Lib Side Boys. They continued to Liberty Avenue, toward the Liberty Village housing project, where the group decided to attack any member of the Lib Side Boys they saw, Donnelly said.

When their car reached Liberty Street and 2nd Avenue -- under the train trestle -- the men spotted three people, two of whom were members of the Lib Side gang.

Johnson rolled down his window, pulled out a .357-caliber handgun from under his seat and fired six shots, striking Codys once in the head, killing him. The other two intended victims, both members of the Lib Side Boys, were not injured in the attack.

Elijah Trammell and Michael Britton, who were Johnson's accomplices, were arrested two weeks later. Trammell has since pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated manslaughter, and Britton is still awaiting trial.

Johnson was arrested in Staten Island more than a month after the shooting, but not before he tried to shoot at New York police officers, who returned fire, striking and partially paralyzing him, authorities said.

Officers had been called in to the Staten Island location after a tow truck driver sent to repair a flat tire in Johnson's car became suspicious when he showed an identification card that wasn't a driver's license. The tow truck driver called police, who soon discovered a warrant for Johnson's arrest.

As police officers approached Johnson's car, he pulled out a 9-mm handgun and tried to fire at them, the prosecutor's office said. The gun jammed, and officers fired back, hitting him. Johnson later pleaded guilty to a weapons charge in New York then was returned to New Jersey to stand trial for the Plainfield shooting.

Johnson faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced March 13 before Superior Court Judge Douglas Fasciale.